The Daze: Add some black magic to your Barrier IX car

The Daze has given the humble Cleric-class vehicles an offensive edge. Meet the Warlock. :mage:

The Daze is a unique module, due to being able to counter any weapon. As shown in the above example, it can block the Reaper for a whole 9 seconds. The same should apply to any weapon that requires a long enough spin-up or charge-up before firing.
But installing the Daze leaves only 9 energy points for Barrier IXs. With all three modules upgraded for +2 sec. duration since 2017, I can provide continuous shielding if I keep moving to recharge them. As a bonus, my Daze recharges quickly, too. :smiley_cat:

These two videos were recorded on the first day of my testing this car. I have a few conclusions to share:

  1. Placing Barrier IXs on the go requires special attention, so that they don’t block teammates.
  2. Constantly moving around close to the teammates requires careful driving, as well as predicting their movements, to the point that they won’t have to plan ahead to avoid the barrier car. They need to know they don’t have to additionally adjust their manoeuvers for a support vehicle.
  3. The Daze may encourage the user to charge enemies head-on or chase after them, and that urge should be resisted when the enemies are facing you. An Avalanche car just needs to turn a little to blow you up before you can get close. Hovercrafts are so fast now, they can reverse faster than you charging towards them. It’s best to hex by surprise.
  4. Stay with the team because you still need them, and they need you. The Daze only expands this car’s functionality.
  5. Overall, prioritize shielding rather than hexing. But it may depend on the situation.
  6. Seek out teammates in need of assistance. Setting the minimap size do Large and scale to 1 helps with that. In the second video, I saw a teammate outnumbered, so I rushed to help (and apologized after the battle for blocking them with the barriers; I didn’t think to cancel the turrets, which is an option).

Caveats:

  1. The Barrier IX’s force field can easily be destroyed by unguided rockets, grenades and AC projectiles, after an update years ago. That makes it unreliable when facing such weapons, and could act as a trap, by giving teammates a false sense of security, to soon dissipate and leave them unprotected out in the open. For this reason, I can’t recommend the Barrier IX as a fun module to embark on an adventure with.
  2. The base duration of 8 sec. isn’t worth the 3 energy points. It used to be 10 sec., but a balancing change intended to introduce a 2-sec. activation delay was carried out in such a way that it only delayed the force field’s activation time, thus reducing the turret’s active time by the same duration. I may have been the first to drive an all-barrier car, and in my experience, the 10 seconds were barely acceptable, while 12 seconds, with the upgrade, seemed just fine. 8 seconds is too short to recommend the module, and upgrading is compounded by the issues mentioned in pt 1.

I’m planning to craft 3 Pythons and use them in this car instead of the Barriers. The Porcupine should work great too. Of course, the Wang would seem as the main weapon to benefit from this module. Or the Imp, the Gravastar, etc.

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My current PvP missions build that I play the most is a triple flash + Daze.

You need someone to run beside you to DPS. But I can basically shut down any build while my buddy kills them.

It is a very fun playstyle.

Triple flash + dash also hard counters many builds, like drones, porcs, fortunes, some missiles and so on.